Ken Starr to Newsmax TV: Mueller Report Written for Congress to Examine Obstruction

The Mueller report was written as a blueprint for lawmakers to dig deeper and determine if President Donald Trump obstructed justice and should be impeached, former Solicitor General Ken Starr told Newsmax TV.

During an appearance on Monday's "The Joe Pags Show," Starr — who served as the independent counsel during the Whitewater investigation of the 1990s — said special counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian election interference had a distinct purpose.

"What is very clear from the report, from the literal language of the report, is this report was designed not only to go to the public domain, but essentially was a call on the House of Representatives to consider, did the president of the United States corruptly abuse his power?" Starr said.

"And I view that, Joe, as very questionable. That's not the job of the special counsel. It was, now to go back to the old days, the job of the independent counsel. That's what I was specifically called … to make a determination whether this should go to the House of Representatives for possible impeachment."

Starr noted that some portions of the report make Trump look bad around alleged acts that could be seen as obstruction of justice, but the decision was made not to pursue criminal charges.

"The report lays out these so-called obstructive acts. But it nonetheless says we're not going to reach a judgment on whether a prosecution should be brought," Starr said. "And so the special counsel put this issue square in the hands of [Attorney General] Bill Barr, who then described a process he went through, which is to consult with now-former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, as well as the office of legal counsel, and to come to the view that this was not chargeable as a criminal offense.

"There are some things in there that are unflattering to the president of the United States if you credit them. Are they true? Well, we've got a report, that's a one-sided report, that is the prosecutor's report. We don't have the response."

The Mueller report was written as a blueprint for lawmakers to dig deeper and determine if President Donald Trump obstructed justice and should be impeached, former Solicitor General Ken Starr told Newsmax TV....